IVINS — On Thursday night, the Ivins City Council approved an emergency expenditure of nearly $1 million to replace the storm drain on a street that public works officials say is deficient and prone to sinkholes. 

In a unanimous 3-0 vote, with two council members absent, $976,608.75 was authorized for the storm drain replacement on 400 East through Ivins.

Ivins Public Works Director Chuck Gillette told the council the work is needed after plastic storm pipes installed in the late 1990s have proven to be too small and weak to handle larger storms. 

“We can’t rely on the strength of plastic to hold that up,” Gillette told the council. “We have to go to concrete. The budget has doubled but we don’t have a choice — it’s not going to get any cheaper.”

Gillette said during major storms, city workers rush to the area due to sinkholes and excessive flooding. The street, with a concrete trunk line down the middle, is designed to be the city’s flood street, similar to the function of 400 East in St. George.

Gillette said the weakness of the pipeline is causing the concrete above — three inches thick with no expansion points — to collapse. Initially, council member Lance Anderson questioned whether such an expense can wait. 

“We are going out of the rainy season. Is this something we need to do now?” he questioned.

After Gillette said it was worth the money in the long run, Anderson responded “but it’s a lot of money,” and suggested a lower-cost replacement involving strengthening the concrete above the pipe. Fellow council member Dennis Mehr said that idea was worth exploring. 

Gillette noted the work couldn’t wait and that waiting would also make the fix more costly in the future. 

“We need do do something,” Gillette said. “We have a plastic pipe that can cause sinkholes. We have a concrete waterway above that’s in danger of failing. We were going to leave it alone until we evaluated it and saw these problems.”

Both Mehr and Anderson said, ultimately, they deferred to Gillette’s initial judgement.

“I accept his assessment that we need a larger pipe,” Anderson just before the unanimous approval of the funds. 

First look at budget

The 2024 fiscal year budget process began at the same meeting. The tentative budget presented by Ivins Director of Finance Cade Visser has a deficit for the third straight year.

The tentative budget has a $6,076,932 deficit after $19,278,899 in revenue and $25,355,830 in expenses. The largest expenses this year are $1.3 million for a new public works yard, $40,000 for a new public works vehicle, $1.15 million toward the Old Dixie Highway 91 project, $40,000 for a new public works vehicle, $550,000 for road maintenance and  $165,000 for three new police vehicles.

At the same time, overall capital project expenses are down 69.5%, with much of the expense of the Old Dixie Highway 91 project already accounted for. 

The department’s largest spending increases are recreation, up 13% from $361,805 to $409,207, and law enforcement up, 6.1% from $3,178,482 to 3,373,416. 

“The three things that are the most costly but most beneficial for safety and welfare … police, streets and fire,” Visser said. 

Visser added a big reason for the drop in revenue is the loss of pandemic federal aid from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Visser said that ARPA funds specifically were used in the last fiscal year to shore up a deficit. 

“The cost drivers are a conservative look at revenues,” Visser said. “Part of the drop in revenue is we’re not seeing CARES funds this year. Possible solutions are to use the general fund reserves … There’s always possibility of a property tax increase, or we can also use ARPA funds again and kick the can down the road.”

The mention of a property tax increase had Mehr questioning whether Visser’s estimates of revenue are conservatively too low. 

“A conservative argument leads to an argument to taxes,” Mehr said, who also noted that deficits were expected the last two years, but turned out to be surpluses. “We need to look how to tweak the assumptions. In fiscal year 21, we estimated a $3 million deficit and got a $1 million surplus. This year we have a $400K surplus after we expected a $600K deficit. So yes we could be better than we think.”

Mayor Chris Hart also warned about dipping into the general fund reserves.

“They’re there to cover us in an economic downfall and we have some economists saying that might be coming,” Hart said.

The mayor noted that when the Black Desert Resort is completed, it will bring a substantial increase in city revenue and that might be the time where the city may have to hold off on some expenses. 

“What I’d like to look at is what of these things are absolutely needed now,” Hart said. “There are just times in a personal or business budget where you say we may to have more mac and cheese this year.”

With the introduction of the tentative budget, the council will now spend portions of the next several meetings discussing it, including a public hearing, before passing a finalized budget in June.

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